Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., on Tuesday said immigration has now turned into a "national security crisis" for America.

"This is a tremendously important crisis, as I would call it, not just an immigration crisis, but a national security crisis," Perdue said in a hearing on families who have been victims of violence from illegal immigrants. "There are only six reasons why 13 colonies got together in the first place, six reasons, and one of those was to provide for the national defense."

From 2000 to 2014, there were more than 100 convicted aliens released onto the streets and then arrested again with charges of murder, Perdue said.

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In 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released more than 36,000 criminal and illegal aliens back into the U.S. who had nearly 90,000 convictions on their records. Nearly 200 of them had murder convictions and 16,000 had drunk driving convictions, Perdue said.

He also said that, according to the Center of Immigration Studies, that there are more than 340,000 criminal illegal aliens roaming freely in the U.S. today.

"I would argue that this is a national emergency. It's absolutely outrageous, in my opinion," Perdue said. "I don't think there are innocent parties in this debate."

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